Ireland must begin to see the EU as more than just a crock of gold but as a home for Irish society to which we have obligations, a conference on the EU at St Patrick's College, Maynooth has been told.
"There is a danger of seeing the EU only as a negotiating arena with tortuous negotiations, week after week, on agriculture, environmental directives and so on", said Prof Brigid Laffan, Jean Monnet professor of European politics at UCD. The media tended to pay attention to the immediate day to day issues and not to the deep-rooted transformation of Europe since the war, she said.
Speaking at the conference, entitled "Ireland and Europe - Rediscovering a Hidden Vision", Prof Laffan said that for Ireland, the EU was about finding a home in a regional and continental context. "Ireland had to engage with the outside world if it was to provide an adequate living to its people." This meant the end of the Ireland of de Valera, she said, the Ireland of frugal people engaged with matters of the spirit and not the material world.
The Munster MEP Mr Pat Cox said that despite the great interest in the level of EU funding received here, a sense of perspective was needed. "Approximately one extra percentage point of economic growth has been added in each recent year as a direct result of structural funds," he said. The explanation for the bulk of our economic growth therefore came from elsewhere: from our young educated workforce; modern telecommunications; sound macroeconomic and fiscal policies; stable and low inflation; social partnership; and political stability.
He said the EU was therefore not simply a "crock of gold" for Ireland. Ireland had done well from European solidarity, he said, and should therefore seek non-economic areas in which it could demonstrate an understanding that solidarity was not just a one-way street.
One such area was that of military co-operation and security, he said, calling for a fundamental reappraisal of Irish neutrality. He also condemned the "creeping racism" evident in the debate about asylum-seekers. Ireland must now demonstrate a coming of age, and "a mature sense of balance between rights and responsibilities".